‘Fecal matter may saturate Lake Kariba’

MORE than 24 metric tonnes of faecal matter is being deposited into Lake Kariba on a monthly basis by Kapenta fishermen and house boats operators, environmentalist Blessung Mhofu has said.

Mr Mhofu warned in an interview on Tuesday that failure to tackle faecal matter disposal into the lake would have long term adverse effects on the aquatic life in the manmade lake.

He urged authorities in Zambia and Zimbabwe to immediately find a lasting solution to the problem before the whole lake was polluted with faecal matter from the Kapenta rigs and houseboats.

He suggested that to stop the pollution of the lake, regulations should be drawn up to compel Kapenta rigs and houseboat operators to install portable toilets on-board their vessels for the safe disposal of the faecal matter.

Lake Kariba would soon be polluted to an extent where the water in the manmade water reservoir would not be fit for human and animal consumption, he warned, adding that human faeces carried harmful micro-organisms which easily contaminated water sources and slowed down the decomposition process.

He said currently, 1,422 Kapenta rigs with a crew of more than four members per rig operated on the lake without toilets on-board resulting in the fishermen to dispose faecal matter into the lake.

''Each Kapenta rig has more than four crew members meaning more than 5,000 fishermen operate on the lake every night and at the same time use the lake to answer the call of nature so if nothing is done quickly, the water body will soon be saturated with human faeces which will in turn disturb aquatic life on the manmade lake," he said.

Mr Mhofu said although some of the houseboats operating on the lake had toilets on-board, operators used the lake to dispose of the same faecal matter before docking.

Zambia has 962 while Zimbabwe 460 kapenta fishing boats officially declared on the lake, against the protocol agreement that rations Zimbabwe and Zambia to have 275 and 225 kapenta fishing boats, respectively.